A silver halide photographic material is processed by a sequence of imagewise exposure, color development and desilvering to form a dye image as well as reduced silver. The reduced silver is oxidized by a bleaching agent and is converted to a soluble silver complex upon treatment with a fixing agent and is washed away with water. The dye image is subsequently subjected to a stabilization step. But during extended storage, the dye image fades away and the white unexposed area turns yellow (hereunder referred to as yellow stain), and in either case, the viewing of the picture is obstructed. Of the two defects, yellow stain is known to be more conspicuous and occurs very rapidly when the photographic material is stored under strong illumination or hot and humid conditions. It has therefore been strongly desired to prevent the premature occurrence of yellow stain in stored color pictures.
Various techniques are known for preventing the occurrence of yellow stain in the color image formed on silver halide color photographic materials. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,788,274 and 3,676,136, Japanese Patent Publications Nos. 32369/73, 20537/74, as well as Japanese Patent Applications (OPI) Nos. 47341/73, 90526/73 and 83441/74 (the symbol OPI as used herein means an unexamined published Japanese patent application) disclose the use of image stabilizers (or simply stabilizers) made, individually or in combination, of water-soluble aluminum salts, water-soluble zinc salts, water-soluble zirconium salts, sulfurous acid salts, boric acid salts, mono- or di- or polycarboxylic acids, water-soluble aldehyde compounds and water-soluble methylol compounds. Japanese Patent Publications Nos. 35240/71 and 20975/74 disclose the treatment with solutions containing UV absorbers. Japanese Patent Publication No. 30495/73 discloses the treatment with solutions containing a brightening agent. But these methods are either low in their effectiveness or accelerate the fading of dye image when they succeed in preventing yellow stain.
Color photographic materials are processed automatically and continuously by photofinishers, but with the recent concern over pollution and wasteful use of water resources, there is a great demand for saving the use of water in washing step subsequent to bleaching, fixing or blixing. But if the use of washing water is simply curtailed, the dye image on a photographic material that has been processed with a ferric complex salt of organic acid (which is a typical silver bleaching agent) is attacked by accelerated yellow stain during extended storage. As a further disadvantage, a thiosulfate or its silver complex salt conventionally used as a fixing agent builds up in the washing water to form silver sulfide. In addition, the foul washing water may contaminate the stabilizer which is often used in the subsequent step. This is another cause of the formation of silver sulfide and accelerated yellow staining of the dye image during storage.